Nextel’s 3rd-Quarter Loss Narrows

Nextel Communications, the wireless-telephone company controlled by Craig McCaw, reported a third-quarter loss that was an 18% improvement over last year, helped in part by a one-time accounting gain and a 30% increase in revenue.

The telecommunications company reported a loss of $150 million, or 27 cents a share. In the year-earlier period, it had a loss of $184 million, or 31 cents a share.

The report was slightly better than what analysts had expected.

“It was nice to hear a company meet and slightly exceed major expectations and articulate a stable growth scenario,” said SoundView Technology Group analyst Tim O’Neil, who rates Nextel “buy” and said he owns less than 10 shares. “They’re not trying to do anything that took the investors by surprise.”

But Nextel’s bottom line was padded by a $469 million, one-time accounting gain that resulted from the use of Nextel stock to retire debt held by the company’s international division.

The company also had one-time losses of $322 million stemming from a decline in value of Nextel International’s securities and a tax charge associated with a write-down of assets in the Philippines.

Excluding those one-time items, Nextel’s loss was $356 million, or 46 cents a share.

Third-quarter revenue increased 30% to $1.99 billion from $1.53 billion. The company also reported the addition of 650,000 subscribers, giving the company 9.6 million subscribers .